


Paralyzed

by VileVenom



Category: Mystery Skulls Animated
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Gen, Might become OT3 later, Panic Attacks, Vampire!Arthur
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-03
Updated: 2017-04-12
Packaged: 2018-10-14 07:10:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10531458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VileVenom/pseuds/VileVenom
Summary: When Vivi suggested taking on a new case, this hadn't exactly been what Arthur'd been expecting, nor exactly what he'd signed up for.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, I started writing this in my head at work a few days ago, and I know it's not a super original idea, but I figured I'd give it a shot.
> 
> I haven't written anything in a dogs age, so I'm a little rusty, but I'm hoping this still stands on its own two feet~

Of course Vivi had begged them to go to this stupid house she’d heard about while hanging around the lobby of the hotel they’d managed to afford for the night. And of course it was one of those giant mansion type houses with foreboding iron gates covered in dead vines that sent a full body shiver up Arthur’s spine. And of -fucking- course it wasn’t a ghost in the house, such as Vivi had neglected to tell them until they were already in the front foyer.

“Well, I figured, you know, we already /have/ a ghost on our team, and we’ve dealt with enough in the past. Why not change things up a little?” She’d grinned at them and Arthur had resigned himself to her whims, even as Lewis let out a derisive snort and Mystery rolled his eyes at her side.

But the real kicker? As with all of their recent ‘excursions’ since Lewis had rejoined the team, Arthur found himself attracting whatever they were looking for. Mystery had told him, once, that it was because the demon that had possessed him left a sort of hole in his natural defenses, making him an easy ‘target’, as it were, for anything supernatural.

That fact certainly didn’t comfort Arthur in the least bit as he barreled down yet another hallway, lungs burning and legs cramping as he did his best to keep ahead of the thing gnashing its teeth shortly behind him. As a matter of fact, all it did was make him mentally curse whatever had decided this should be his life now and wish Vivi had a spell that would keep him hidden from all the nasties that they inevitably came across.

“GUYS,” Arthur shouted as loud as his limited oxygen would allow him, wishing he hadn’t wandered away from Mystery to investigate a rather gorgeous, if dusty, grand piano he had spotted through a doorway back down the hallway they had walked down. And had his legs taken him in the direction he’d known Mystery was in when the thing had sprung out on him? Of course not. He’d jumped about a mile in the air, booked it out of the room and back down the stairs he’d come up minutes before. Lewis and Vivi had headed to the basement, so perhaps that was where he’d subconsciously gone for. Or he’d thought the stairs would slow his pursuer. Only, not so much.

The creature had simply jumped over the decorative banister, dark clothing and long, greasy hair wiping around it’s head and it landed with a loud thud in front of Arthur, causing the blonde to skid to a halt and lose precious seconds as he turned and fled as quickly as he could.

“GUYS,” he shouted again, finding himself circling through the kitchen for what felt like the third time as he dodged swiping claws and ducked through another doorway. Everyone else had to have heard him by known. Mind, with how he was winding his way through the main floor of the expansive house, he wasn’t overly surprised they hadn’t located him yet. He was, after all, trying his damnedest to be as elusive as possible.

Watching his footing probably would’ve gone a long way towards helping him achieve that goal.

Arthur gasped as he felt the toe of his sneaker snag the overly ornate carpet on the floors, causing him to stumble. Two seconds of delay, at most, was all the creature needed to be on Arthur and slam him into a wall, pinning the mechanic with a wiry, but strong arm across his chest. All the air in the mechanics lungs left him in a gush as he was pinned, his back going ram rod straight as he felt the things oddly cold, but distinctively moist breath puff against his face as he finally got a good, solid look at it. Eyes black as pitch seemed to stare straight through him between strands of greasy black hair as it grinned widely, elongated canines glinting at him in the half light of the room.

“Little bugs, came unwittingly into my web,” it cooed, its voice grating on Arthur’s ears, obvious that it hadn’t been used in a long while. He flinched as it tilted its head forward, sucking air through its nose as it quite obviously inhaled Arthur’s sent, causing the frozen mechanic to let out an involuntary squeak. “Such pretty smells,” it practically purred, its cold nose pressing suddenly into Arthur’s neck as it tugged his shirt collar and vest to the side with its free hand.

Arthur found his voice failing him as he tried to bring himself to scream for the others, to alert them to his location so it would be easier to find him. To come and do something as this creature (’vampire’ his mind hissed at him, though it was less than helpful at this point) took its time in luxuriating in his scent. His skin crawled as it ran its nose further along his skin, shuddering in disgust as it suddenly darted its tongue out to lave at his collar bone.

This was it. He was going to die here, lost in some overly huge mansion, his blood sucked dry by this vampire that Vivi had neglected to tell him about (She’d said it was humanoid and that people were disappearing. It really should have clued them in at least a little). He hadn’t even gotten back into the swing of things with Lewis yet, and now he was going to die. Maybe he’d become a ghost, as well. At least his friends knew he wasn’t a cold blooded murderer. That was something, at least. What would they tell his uncle? Accidentally eaten by a vampire? Unfortunate blood letting incident?

His thoughts were cut short by the vampire chuckling into his ear. It was obviously satisfied and done with smelling him. “Bet you’ll taste just as good as you smell,” and that was all the warning Arthur had before he felt the sickening slice of its teeth sinking into the junction of his right shoulder and neck, a scream loud enough to rattle windows finally ripping free from his throat. The noise didn’t seem to deter the vampire, naturally, as it simply shifted the clamp of its jaw on Arthur, tearing into his skin to produce more blood for it to eagerly lap up.

And that was when he finally heard distant shouting coming his way, accompanied by the thumping of Vivi’s footsteps, and Lewis’ lack thereof. “Better late, than never,” he chuckled, before gasping in pain as the vampire redoubled its hold on him, crushing his body more firmly into the wall as it downed his blood in mouthfuls.

“ARTHUR!” Lewis’ voice rang out, before Vivi came into the room like a whirlwind, spell book in hand with Mystery and Lewis hot on her heels. At least, that was what Arthur thought it was. Everything was sort of beginning to look like colourful blurs.

He could see a flash of purple, before the room took on a bright pink tint. There was a streak of White and black that jumped from behind a blob of blue at the thing still attached to his neck. He was jostled, but the vampire clung to him, its clawed fingers digging into his skin through his clothes, opening yet more wounds, only these dripped blood onto the carpet, staining the intricate designs a rusty copper red as his vision began to darken at the edges. At least he couldn’t feel the tears in his flesh anymore, even if that meant he also didn’t remember why he was even where he was.

“ARTHUR!”

Someone was screaming his name as the vampire was finally pulled away from him, his legs giving way as his body fell to the floor in a heap, long streaks of white and flashes of neon pink dancing across his vision, before there was nothing but blue.

“Arthur, please! Stay awake! We’ve got you now!”

He felt his arms being shifted, and the sound of what he thought might be glass shattering, before he felt himself being lifted into the air, engulfed in warmth and pink replacing blue as he slowly blinked his heavy eyelids.

“Stay with us, Artie! Come on, you can do it!”

They were running. Or, well, he wasn’t, but he was moving, being carried. He could faintly feel air rushing against his face and the blur of walls and paintings as they moved back through the mansion. He could vaguely recall running past those colours before-before…before what? He was having trouble remembering a time before vivid splotches of colour and pain.

Then they were outside, and Arthur could see what he thought may have been stars, cold wind making him shiver as he began to have trouble keeping his eyes open.

“Come on, Arthur. You gotta stay awake. We’re gonna get you to the closest hospital, okay? You’ll be okay! You need to stay awake!”

Awake? But when his eyes closed it was so much nicer, in the dark. Every time he opened his eyes the blurs of colour he could see were beginning to make him feel nauseous, and everything was becoming darker, anyway. What harm would keeping his eyes closed really do?

“No, Artie, come on, man! Don’t-”

But that was the last thing Arthur registered as he let his mind slip away from the pain, succumbing to the sweet allure of the dark. 

~

The next time Arthur was aware of the world, he found himself squinting up at bleach white ceilings, and his entire body feeling like it was floating. His mind felt like soup as he blinked heavy eyelids, slowly becoming aware of a weight on his left side. He let his head roll to the side, his eyes taking a minute or two to focus enough to make out a head of bright blue hair resting against the bed to his side.

“Vi-?” he rasped, voice scratchy and dry as his throat revolted against the action.

Like a shot Vivi’s head came up, red rimmed eyes staring at Arthur, dark circles under her eyes. “Artie?” she gasped, a fresh wave of tears welling in her eyes, “You’re awake! Oh god, Arthur!” She let out a strangled sob, being uncharacteristically mindful as she draped herself over the blonde for a hug. “We were so scared when you fell unconscious. There was so much blood, and that thing got away, and-”

“Vi,” Arthur gasped, halting Vivi’s trail of babbling speech, “water.”

“Right! Right,” she wiped at her eyes, sitting up and shifting as she reached for a pitcher of water and a glass on the table next to Arthur’s bed. “We contacted your uncle as soon as you were taken in for recovery. We’re still about a day’s drive from home, so he’s still on his way here,” she supplied as she gently tipped the glass to Arthur’s lips, letting him sip at the water slowly, “Mystery was relegated to the van, because they wouldn’t let him into the hospital. I tried to tell them he was a service dog, but they said if we didn’t have papers to prove it, then he wouldn’t be allowed in. Lewis just went out not that long ago to check on him and get me something to eat. I told him I’d be fine and he should hurry back in case you woke up, but here we are.” She let out a humorless laugh, moving the glass away from Arthur as he gave a little grunt to signal he was done.

“Thanks, Vivi,” Arthur murmured, offering a tiny smile in her direction, “It’s not like this isn’t familiar territory, though. At least we both remember what happened this time.”

“I suppose that’s true,” Vivi chuckled, her smile tired.

“Hey, Vivi, they only had a couple things that were edible in the cafeteria besides chocolate pudding and jello, so I commandeered a couple bags of chips and chocolate bars from the vending machine down the hall as well,” Lewis’ voice preceded him as he pushed open the hospital room door, nearly dropping his arm load as his eye landed on Arthur. “You’re awake!”

“Hey, Lewis,” Arthur said, lips still curved up in a tiny, exhausted smile, “Can’t say I really want to be with how bright this place is, but hey. Beggars can’t be choosers.”

Lewis shook his head a little as he nudged the hospital door shut with his hip, not finding the ‘joke’ very funny. “You’ve been out for about twelve hours, man. You worried us,” Lewis commented as he allowed himself to float across the room, depositing the food he’d brought up onto the bedside table, easily within reach of Vivi.

“Sorry.” An apology was Arthur’s knee jerk reaction, and only seemed to earn him twin looks of sympathy from the others.

“No need to be sorry, Artie,” Vivi sighed, patting his shoulder as she moved to grab a bag of chips, “We’re both just glad you’re awake and okay, and on the road to recovery.”

Arthur nodded a little, his attention only venturing from Vivi to notice that Lewis was staring at him rather intently, the usual sunglasses he wore to cover his supernaturally black and magenta eyes slid down his nose, practically falling off his face.

“What? Is my bedhead that bad?” he asked, lifting his hand while being mindful of the needle currently attaching him to a drip next to his bed. He ran his fingers throw his blonde locks once or twice, though it obviously did nothing to dissuade Lewis’ staring. “…Seriously, man, what? You’re staring to freak me out.”

“Well, Arthur,” Lewis began, slow and careful, licking his lips needlessly as he fully removed his sunglasses from his face, “I think, uhm…perhaps I know why you find the room too bright. I mean, besides how white everything is normally.”

Arthur cocked his head a little to the side, narrowing his gaze in mild confusion and curiosity. “Oh yeah? And why is that?”

Lewis cast his gaze around the room for a moment, before snatching up the shiny metal folder/clipboard that held Arthur’s medical papers at the end of the bed and offering it to the mechanic. Arthur gave him a quizzical look while taking the clipboard, shifting it between his hands for a moment. “Uh…Is it something in my files?” he asked, glancing back up at the specter. And then Vivi gasped beside him.

“Oh! Oh, no. Oh, Arthur. No, your reflection,” she said, gesturing to the reflective surface of the clipboard, “I didn’t notice before, too excited that your were even awake.”

“What are you guys-” he began, before he let his gaze shift to his reflection, it only taking a moment to realize what they were talking about. It was his eyes. Where they were once a vibrant amber, they were now deep red, almost crimson. An involuntary gasp left him as he stared himself down, wishing his robotic arm was attached so he could touch his face and see if this were real. But, of course it was. That thing that had bitten him, he’d connected the dots long before he was rescued as to what it was. He supposed he should be thankful he still even had a reflection to look at.

~

The rest of his hospital stay had been a bit of a blur. His uncle showed up not even a few hours after he’d woken up, fussing a bit over his nephew, before declaring the boy would survive, he was a Kingsman, after all. Though, Arthur could see how his eyes were rimmed with red from exhaustion, and perhaps tears. Lance liked to put up a front in public, but Arthur knew his uncle well enough to take the gruff comment as what it was truly meant to be. Lance was just relieved his nephew made it out of yet another tight spot he’d managed to get himself into.

After that, Lance signed Arthur out as he’d been given the go ahead by the doctors, who’d been honestly baffled by Arthur’s quick recovery. Arthur didn’t miss the worried looks Lewis and Vivi exchanged, but instead decided to focus on the repairs he’d have to make to his arm after he’d reattached it and found it had been mildly damaged when he’d been pinned to the wall.

His uncle bid the three of them farewell once Arthur was wheeled out of the hospital, much to his chagrin, stating that he’d not get any rest at the shop, with all the noise, and Arthur would probably be better off going back home to the three bedroom apartment he shared with Lewis and Vivi. Plus, his old truck didn’t exactly have the comfiest seats anymore, and Lance had been in such a rush that he’d left his tool box in the passenger seat. The van would provide more comfort and space. He hugged Arthur tightly, before forcing the younger blonde to stoop so he could ruffle his hair and scold him about constantly getting stuck in hospitals.

Arthur waved as his uncle left the parking lot, before being startled into falling by an over excited Mystery leaping into his chest. The kitsune licked at his face for a moment with Arthur simply flailing and letting out gasping laughs for a few minutes, before Vivi finally dragged Mystery away with a half-hearted admonishment about Arthur having only just gotten out of the hospital, he didn’t need to go right back in.

“C’mon, Artie,” Lewis hummed, helping to hoist Arthur back onto his feet before ushering him into the back of the van. And then they were off, back home to Tempo.

Arthur stared out the window absently as the other three took up the front bar seat, watching the clouds as they drifted in the sky. He wondered idly how long he would have to enjoy the sight before he would no longer be able to stand being in the sun.


	2. Chapter 2

Arthur gently pushed Lewis’ hand away when the specter offered it while disembarking from the van once they were back home. “I’m fine, Lew. Don’t worry,” he said, offering a forced smile, before pushing past Lewis and heading towards their building, where Vivi was already digging keys out of her skirt pocket.

“Once we’re upstairs, you should jump in the shower and relax, Artie,” Vivi hummed, tongue poking out from between her lips as she pulled her keys from from her pocket and began to unlock the door, “The hospital bed couldn’t have been super comfy, and I don’t think you’ve showered since a few days ago, before we got to that last town.”

“Yeah, okay,” Arthur said, nodding slightly as he mindlessly followed Vivi inside and up the stairs, Lewis following shortly after with Mystery at his heels. Vivi glanced back at him once or twice as they walked, and he could feel Lewis and Mystery’s gazes boring into his back. He knew they were all just worried about him, but the knowledge that he was slowly turning into the same sort of creature that had bitten him left his guts feeling hollow and his mind providing nothing but scenarios where he woke up in the middle of the night and decided Vivi would make a good snack. It made his skin itch. He would definitely be taking Vivi’s suggestion of a shower to heart.

He bid the others a quiet good night (even though it was still the middle of the afternoon) once they were all inside their apartment, and immediately headed to the bathroom. Once there, he shed the simple white t-shirt and sweat pants he’d gotten from the hospital (his own clothes having been shredded), and began the laborious task of getting their temperamental shower to provide optimal cleansing temperature. Though, he gave pause as he caught the sight of his reflection in the corner of his eye.

Arthur heaved a quiet sigh as he turned fully to the mirror, a light frown on his face as he took in his appearance. Dark circles drooped beneath his now piercing red eyes, scars marred the flesh just above where his metal prosthetic attached at his left shoulder, his skin was pale and he would hazard to say he almost looked gaunt with how thin he was. And now, thick hospital bandages covered the right side of his neck and part of his shoulder, marking where yet new scars would bloom. That wasn’t even to mention his new ‘condition’ that was crawling through his veins, slowly turning into something, rather than someone.

He scowled at his reflection, wondering, not for the first time, why Vivi and Lewis still bothered with him. His life was cursed with nothing but bad luck since he was small, with the death of his parents, and only continuing on through his life, most recently capping with the death of his best friend, and now this. Of course, Lewis had come back, but given that he was now a ghost he didn’t much figure that was really a silver lining to be looking at.

Startling himself with a quiet growl as his thoughts continued to stew as he glowered at himself, he jumped back from the mirror, he found himself becoming slightly shaky. His voice had sounded almost feral, and he hadn’t meant to even make the sound at himself. He shook his head slightly as he wiped at his face, before removing his prosthetic and stepping into the shower.

~

“Come on, Vivi. There has to be something we can do,” Lewis urged, floating behind his girlfriend as she ran her fingers over the spines of her massive book collection, looking for any and tomes she could find that had any information on vampires (she had figured out what that thing was far too late. Why hadn’t she clued in sooner?!), a slight frown on her face.

“I’m looking, Lewis,” she snapped as he crowded into her space yet again, turning a short, sharp glare on the specter. “But it’s hard with you breathing down my neck!”

Lewis floated backwards quickly, a light frown of his own on his features. “I don’t breath,” he stated simply.

That gave Vivi pause, before she let out a nervous sounding giggle, running her fingers through her hair and dislodging her hair band. “I’m sorry, Lew. I just…if I had of realized sooner what that thing was, maybe Arthur wouldn’t be in this situation.”

“It’s not your fault, Vi. We offered to let Arthur stay in our room,” Lewis offered, moving forward to fix Vivi’s hairband for her.

“Yeah, but then I egged him on into coming with us!: she insisted, staring up at Lewis with tears in her eyes.

“Yes, but you didn’t force him to wander off on his own and disappear into a completely different part of the mansion without any backup,” Mystery suddenly piped up after dropping a book onto the floor and scratching at his collar. “If he’d stayed with me, he probably would have been fine,” he added, nodding towards the book, “this should have what you’re looking for.”

“That’s a little harsh, Mystery,” Lewis scolded, the kitsune simply shrugging in response.

“It’s the truth. I’m not blaming Arthur for getting attacked, of course not. He’s been through more than enough that he doesn’t need this on top of everything else on the poor boy’s mind. What I mean is, he has been through enough paranormal experiences that he should know better then to wander off, away from safety. I could have intervened almost immediately had he stayed with me, but instead I didn’t even notice he was gone until it was much too late, lost in my own exploration,” Mystery said, ending with his ears pressed back against his head, staring off to the side.

“It’s not your fault either, Mystery,” Vivi said, patting her dog on the head as she scooped up the book he brought, “A lot of things could have changed how things turned out.” Lewis nodded vehemently next to Vivi as she spoke.

“That’s right. I think we’re all a little bit to blame for what happened. I’ve known for a while about how vulnerable Arthur’s soul is to supernatural creatures, after that demon tried to possess him in the cave, but I still chose to go with Vivi instead of Arthur. I could tell the thing in the house was moving away from my presence, and yet I still went into the basement with Vivi instead of sticking with him to keep that thing away. You and Vivi can handle yourselves easily against just about anything, but Arthur…” Lewis trailed off, looking remorseful.

Vivi sighed sadly, giving Lewis’ arm a gentle squeeze as she passed by him to set the heavy book on her desk. “Should have, could have, would have, I suppose,” she hummed, her shoulders slumping. “All we can really do now is help Arthur any way we can, and try to keep him from becoming like that vampire.”

“Well, I highly doubt he’ll get quite so far,” Mystery supplied, trotting over to hop up onto a chair next to Vivi’s desk, “If you’ll flip to the section on vampires, there’s a bit about the original three angels who were cast from heaven and became what humans would come to call vampires. They weren’t really, more like blood thirsty demons, but you get the idea. Anyway, it goes on to talk about how they created the real first vampires, the ones most humans associate with Dracula. These original vampires more closely resembled their demonic parentage, and didn’t retain as much of their human appearance. If I’m right, I think it was a slightly watered down version of these ancient vampires that bit Arthur. Probably a dozen or so generations down the line, since it still looked fairly human-like,” Mystery rambled as Vivi’s eyes flicked over the corresponding text. “Traditionally, people would be fed from repeatedly before their blood was mostly drained and they were forced to drink from their maker, before feeding on a sacrificial human. It was what separated victims from ‘the chosen’. Unfortunately, as time went on, the vampires realized that was a little time consuming,”

“And so, the lore changed to match their rituals, so now people only need to be fed from only once?” Vivi sounded incredulous as she continued to read, Mystery tilting his head a little and Lewis reading over her shoulder.

“Well, not exactly,” Mystery dithered, “They simply drained ‘the chosen’ the first time, rather than spacing it out, and fed them a sacrifice. Turns out, that’s how the later generations were better able to retain their human appearance; less demon blood.”

“And Arthur needed almost an entire blood transfusion when we got him to the hospital,” Vivi gasped, clapping a hand over her mouth.

“Yes, but,” Mystery interjected before Vivi’s mind could go in to many circles, “He didn’t feed on that blood. You know as well as I do that rituals need to be performed certain ways in order to take effect. Arthur must take a life in order to become a vampire.”

“So, what you’re saying is,” Lewis finally piped up, moving away from behind Vivi, “Arthur still has time. Until he feeds, he’ll retain his human soul.”

“Well, yes,” Mystery said with a small shrug, “In essence. But that is not going to stop his hunger, or the gradual changes to his physiology. He will never lose his human soul as long as he does not feed, but he will live in perpetual starvation and be forced to stay out of the sun.”

Vivi let out a quiet noise of distress, flopping down into her own chair, book all but forgotten. “So, there’s nothing we can do but watch Artie fade away?”

“That’s not what I said. Read the book,” Mystery admonished, “It says plain as day that if we kill Arthur’s maker before he feeds, then the ritual will lose all effect and he’ll return to his previous mortal form.”

“Oh,” Vivi sounded sheepish, leaning forward to look over the pages she’d had the book open to, running her fingers over the exact passage Mystery was talking about, “Oh, yeah. Right there.”

“Mhmm. So, there’s still time. But not much, given that it’s been at least two days since Arthur was bitten, and what has he had to eat? Not much. And fairly soon, regular food will no longer give him any sort of sustenance,” Mystery added, tilting his head so his glasses flashed. He did enjoy a bit of dramatic flair.

“But that vampire, it smashed through the window and fled. How are we supposed to track it?” Lewis asked, a frown on his face as he crossed his legs in the air, chin propped up in the palm of his hand, “I could sense it in the house, but not before. And it was already a days drive away. It has two days on us, at least. It could be anywhere by now.”

“Way to kill the hope there, Lew,” Vivi stated flatly, arching an eyebrow at the specter.

Lewis chuckled sheepishly, turning red as he pulled at the collar of his shirt. “Sorry. But, it’s only the truth. It’s going to be hard to find that thing again. And with us now being on a time limit, we can’t exactly afford to screw up by driving too far in the wrong direction.”

Vivi snorted quietly, rising from her seat to flounce into the center of the room,m twirling with her arms outstretched. “Have you forgotten, Lewlew? There is a treasure trove of spells here! I’m sure there’s at least one or two tracking spells I could use! We’re not dead in the water, yet!” She wagged her finger at her boyfriend, “Don’t you go losing your hope, yet. I’m not gonna let Arthur turn into a blood sucker if I can help it.” She then rolled up her sleeves as Mystery hoped off his chair. “Let’s get to work!”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic was supposed to be short. It is rapidly spiraling out of control.

Arthur sighed as he stepped out of the shower, hair dripping on his shoulders. He’d completely forgotten about the bandages on his shoulder in his haste to get under the water and away from the mirror, and now they were soaked through and needed to be changed. Mind, he couldn’t do it himself so he’d only have to pester Lewis and Vivi further than he already had by getting one of them to help him with that, given that the fine motor functions of his prosthetic were still shot. He scowled as he haphazardly pulled his sweat pants back on, turning to glance at himself in the mirror once more. He looked even more bedraggled with his hair drooping around his face and his hospital bandages peeling at the edges were the tape no longer held from moisture.

He paused for a moment, though, a sudden thought striking him. Hadn’t the vampire also dug into his sides? The memories were blurry at best, really, but he could vaguely recall the sensation of his stomach being torn into. He took a short step back to get a better view of himself in the mirror, examining his torso to see what damage had been left behind, only to find the barest hints of jagged scarring just below his ribs.

Quickly, and mindless of the fact that it wasn’t functioning properly quite yet, Arthur reattached his prosthetic, hissing mildly as the nerves reconnected, before scrambling to peel off the ruined bandages. He gaped as he let them hit the floor with a soft squelching sound, lifting his hand shakily to touch his neck and shoulder, no evidence of his attack being left but a spiderweb of light marks were his skin knit itself back together.

Arthur twisted and turned as he stared in the mirror, but if someone didn’t know he had been in the hospital, they never would be able to tell. It was almost as though two nights previous had never even happened.

A sudden rapping on the bathroom door startled him out of his shell-shocked staring, causing a slight growl to leave his throat as he jerked away from the sound. He clamped his hand over his mouth directly after the sound left him, a quiet whine leaving him instead. Another, more insistent rap came, followed by Vivi’s voice asking him to come out, making Arthur straighten his spine and clear his throat.

“Just a sec,” he called back, shooting one last glance at the mirror, eyeing the nearly completely healed wounds and tiny sparks that jumped from his prosthetic as it twitched slightly at his side. He looked a mess, but it wouldn’t be the first time Vivi saw him out of sorts.

He hadn’t really been expecting Vivi, Lewis, and Mystery to be huddled outside the door, though.

“Uh…hi,” he said simply, pursing his lips as the three did little but stare at him, “You-you knocked?”

“Right! Sorry, Artie, just-your shoulder,” Vivi murmured, gesturing vaguely at his scars.

“Yeah, I, I-uhm, was noticing that, too,” Arthur replied, shrugging slightly and shrinking into himself a little, “Did you guys need something? I was going to go work on my arm,” he added, lifting his prosthetic in short, jerky movements.

“Sorry for staring, Arthur,” Lewis apologized, looking contrite, “We knew you were healing faster, that was just unexpected.”

“You’re telling me,” Arthur snorted, before looking slightly bashful as Mystery nudged at his legs and shooting him a short glare, “Anyway, but really, what’s up?”

“Oh! Yes, right,” Vivi suddenly sprung into action, thrusting a rather thick book forward into Arthur’s line of sight, open to a page with a rather graphic depiction of a demon eating a person in black and red ink and a massive sprawl of text next to it, “Mystery found this!”

Arthur continued to stare down the book for a moment, his eyes skimming over the tiny text, a light frown on his face. “Uh, can I get the abridged version?”

“You’re not a vampire yet,” Lewis stated, tiny smile on his face as both Vivi and Mystery took deep breaths, obviously amping up to bombard Arthur with information. “The vampire that bit you didn’t kill you or feed anything to you, so the turning ritual wasn’t completed.”

“Way to steal my thunder, Lewlew,” Vivi pouted, snapping the book closed and tucking it under her arm.

“I figured a more concise version would be best,” Lewis chuckled, “But, regardless. We’ve already found a couple tracking spells we can try to find the vampire that bit you. It’s got a couple days on us, but with some supernatural help, we should be able to find it.”

“And once we do…?” Arthur asked, absently grabbing at his prosthetic. Nervous habits were hard to kick.

“Well,” Mystery stepped in,this time cutting Lewis off, “then it’s simply a matter of a decapitation and a stake through the heart. Contrary to popular culture, any type of stake will do, as long as the heart is pierced.”

“Decapitation?” Arthur wheezed, his hand instinctively going to his neck.

“It’s the best way to ensure the vampire can’t regenerate while we stake it. I know Buffy makes it seem like it’s really easy to do so, but a sternum is rather difficult to stab. It’s going to take some force,” Mystery stated bluntly.

“So, what we’re trying to say, Artie,” Vivi piped up, grinning widely at Arthur, “There’s a cure! So to speak…I know you, and that you’re probably letting your brain go to all sorts of terrible places, so you need to know that none of those things are going to happen. We’re going to track that thing down and kill it, and everything can go back to normal.”

Arthur glanced at Lewis, who offered a small smile of encouragement and a nod, before he looked back to Vivi and gave a slow nod. “Okay.”

~

Vivi had made the spell sound a whole lot easier than it really was, given some of the ingredients it required.

“Don’t…move,” Arthur gasped, wobbling a little as he was held in the air by Lewis, tiny jar in his hand as he eyed the spider resting obliviously in its web.

“I’m trying, Arthur,” Lewis grumbled, doing his best not to shudder at how close they were to the arachnid. In reality it probably would have been ten times easier for him to float up to the corner of the room and capture the spider, rather than him holding Arthur up by the waist so the mechanic could catch it, but even in death he couldn’t stand the tiny eight legged creatures. So, here they were.

“Got it!” Arthur suddenly exclaimed, screwing a lid onto the jar with a triumphant, if tiny, smile on his lips.

“Good,” Lewis sighed, setting Arthur back on the floor, a slight shudder running through him as he glanced at the spider crawling frantically around the glass bottom of the jar. “Ugh. I don’t know how you can be so nonchalant holding that thing.”

Arthur chuckled quietly, ever subdued around Lewis since he came back, “Because. It’s just a spider, Lew. You’re a fire toting ghost. I really don’t know how a tiny little, defenseless spider can still bother you.” To illustrate, he held the jar up and gave it a gentle shake, the spider skittering around to keep its balance.

“Hey now, don’t do that,” Lewis admonished, placing a hand over Arthur’s to keep it still so the spider could regain its balance, “it may be gross and about to be part of a spell, but you don’t need to torment it before hand.”

That gave Arthur pause, Lewis frowning as he noticed the sudden far away look on Arthur’s face. “Did the spell say it had to be a live spider?” Arthur asked after a moment, staring at Lewis’ large hand covering his own.

It took Lewis a second longer to realize why Arthur had stopped and looked so distant, his heart giving a painful beat beneath his jacket. It may have only been a spider, but Lewis knew that Arthur was drawing correlation between himself and the helpless arachnid currently in their possession. Too many times he’d had to run in just before Arthur was used as a prop for some cult’s ritual, or help Vivi cast a spell to free Arthur before anything untoward could happen to him. And then he died, and he couldn’t protect Arthur from that green thing that had taken him away from his friends. And now? Now Arthur was, yet again, in danger of some supernatural thing that had decided he was the best target. He supposed it made sense that Arthur would suddenly feel for the spider that they had intended to kill for their own purposes.

“No. I don’t think it did,” Lewis hummed quietly, moving to hoist Arthur back up, even as the blonde began to unscrew the lid he’d only just put on the jar.

~

“Okay, Vivi, we’ve got everything from your list,” Lewis said as he floated into the library, Arthur hot on his proverbial heels, “Well, except the spider is already dead. We had a, uhm…incident in the living room, so, yeah. I hope that works.” Arthur shot him a grateful smile, which he returned easily.

“Oh, yeah, that’s fine,” Vivi waved a hand, lighting the last of at least a dozen or two candles around the room, “Just set it all down near the circle.”

Lewis nodded as he set everything down near the edge of the rug that covered the floorboards of the library, before moving to lift the ornate rug, revealing a large summoning circle painted below. Inside it were several smaller circles, the largest acting as something of a lock to the others. The smaller circles each had different generic symbols painted into them with spaces left for Vivi to chalk in anything specific she would need for her spell casting, while the largest was repainted every couple of months to ensure that any magic or summoning that happened within was restrained and maintained inside to prevent any ‘accidents’ from happening. Mystery had helped with the construction and design, sighting several amateur circles he’d seen far too easily broken in the past.

“Alright!” Vivi chirped, clapping her hands together as she looked over the ingredients Arthur and Lewis had brought, “Everything looks to be in order! The only thing left that we need,” she began boisterously, fading into a quiet, apologetic tone, “Is some of your blood, Artie.”

That caused Arthur to stop in the middle of grabbing Vivi’s chalk from a shelf, turning to stare at her with wide eyes. “What?” he squeaked.

“Well,” Vivi scuffed her toe lightly against the floor, looking abashed, “You’re connected to that thing now, whether we like it or not. And without anything from the actual vampire, we need something as a tether to let us follow it. I’m afraid the only thing that would allow us to do that would be, uhm, some of your blood.” Noticing how Arthur’s face visibly paled, she quickly waved her hands through the air. “Not much! Just a little bit! Just enough to give the spell the kick it needs.”

Arthur swallowed thickly, absently rubbing at his prosthetic as he cast his gaze around the room, chewing on his lower lip. Lewis floated nearby, concern evident on his features. “I-” Arthur began, before swallowing past the lump that had formed in his throat, “Okay.”

Vivi smiled encouragingly at Arthur, grabbing a tiny dagger from a shelf. “Okay, great. I’m just going to go give this a good wash, and then we can get started,” she said, hurrying out of the room.

Arthur watched her leave, his mechanical arm twitching at his side. He really needed to do some repairs if he was going to be of any use later.

“Hey.”

Arthur jumped as Lewis spoke next to him, turning startled eyes towards the ghost. Lewis set his feet on the floor, walking over to Arthur to place a reassuring hand on his left shoulder.

“You’ll be okay, Arthur. It’s Vivi. And, once your part is over, we can get your something to eat, yeah? I’ll make you something,” Lewis said, letting his hand slide to gently squeeze the back of Arthur’s neck, “Then you can go work on your arm, okay? Vivi and I will need time to plot out our route once the vampire is located.”

Arthur shuddered slightly at Lewis’ strangely cool but warm touched moved to his neck, giving a tiny nod as Vivi came back into the room, a look of determination on her face. “That sounds good,” he murmured, eyes moving to the tiny glint of metal in Vivi’s hand.

“Come on, Artie,” Lewis sighed, turning the blonde bodily in his direction as Vivi began to set up the spell, “Look at me.”

Arthur obeyed after a moment, his breath slightly shallow as he focused on Lewis’ chin, still not quite able to look the other in the eyes, the black and magenta of Lewis’ eyes often the center of nightmares that still plagued him on occasion. Not that he ever blamed Lewis, but having been chased down by a flaming specter while looking for your best friend hadn’t exactly been a highlight of Arthur’s life.

Lewis sighed quietly, tipping Arthur’s chin up, forcing the blonde to meet his gaze. He could see the way Arthur’s adams apple bobbed with nerves as he began to tremble under Lewis’ hands. “You’re going to be fine, Arthur. Everything is going to be fine. Take deep breaths, okay? In for seven, out for five. With my count, Arthur. One-” Lewis had helped Arthur through panic attacks many a time, breathing deep with the blonde to help calm him. He couldn’t recall a time since he’d died, though. It didn’t help that he no longer needed to breath, so Vivi had been the one to do it the last few times Arthur had begun to panic.

But, now with Vivi busy and Mystery having disappeared at some point, it was up to him. He supposed keeping tempo was like counting breaths, so in a pinch he supposed it would do. But Arthur’s breath wasn’t evening out and he could feel how the blonde was beginning to tremble harder beneath his hands.

Lewis finished his count, a light frown on his face as Arthur’s gaze skittered away from his to focus over his shoulder, the blonde obviously trying to control his breathing but failing miserably. It was then a sudden idea struck Lewis, releasing Arthur to dig into his jacket. He pulled his locket free, and pressed it into Arthur’s chest, making the blonde jump yet again, his eyes wide as he looked down at the glowing heart beating against his chest. Lewis took Arthur’s hand and placed it over the locket, forcing Arthur to hold it in place.

“Focus, Arthur,” Lewis stated, replacing his hands on the blondes shoulders, “Focus on the beats, okay? Slow your breathing, and try to sync up with it, alright? I know you can do it.”

After a minute or so, Arthur’s shoulders slumped as he stared down at the golden heart on his chest, his breath finally evening out as he relaxed.

“Good,” Lewis hummed happily, stroking his fingers through Arthur’s hair.

“Thanks, Lewis,” Arthur murmured quietly, hugging the locket more closely to himself as his eyes slid shut, letting himself enjoy the simple comfort he was being offered.

“Anytime, Artie.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not entirely sure where I want to go with this fic, given that I only visualized a couple of scenes in my head, so we'll see where it goes.


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